Justice - Audio, Video, Disco


Even 2007-Shaun, a past version of myself that was often far from musically-adept, could appreciate the immensely happy and infectious tracks that emerged from Justice's debut, Cross - particularly D.A.N.C.E. and We Are Your Friends, the hits which propelled them into mainstream dance giants. Unsurprisingly, the duo refuse to stray too far from the sonic formula that made them big - and Audio, Video, Disco has consequently divided opinion over their musical progress.

From the get-go, with rip-roaring 'Horsepower', Justice are in familiar territory. Sounding closer to the soundtrack to Street Fighter or Gladiators' theme tune, it carelessly chucks out 8-bit synths and epic solos that are a little bit kitsch. First single 'Civilization', accompanied with my favourite music video of the year (where buffalo stampede through falling replicas of classical architecture), is a hotbed of suspense and crashing energy - sadly an energy that rarely gets reintroduced throughout AVD.


'Ohio' though is an intoxicating blend of gospel-whispers, classic hip-hop indulgence and French-renaissance instrumental samples, featuring someone from Midnight Juggernauts (?) Around the 3rd minute mark though it reverts to a classic Justice squelch. There's something of the 70s about 'Canon', particularly its 'Primo', though - think Led Zeppelin gone electro. They'll go on to strongly emulate Queen later, but for now 'Canon' almost defiantly kicks glam-rock riffs in your face but sadly lacks in direction.

Morgan Phalen's vocals go some way in reinforcing the prog-rock influences - 'On'n'On' freely sings about girls and drinking with a clear Kashmir pastiche. From Ledzep we go to Queen on 'Brian(May?)vision', with unabashed guitar solos, and a heavy We Will Rock You ersatz in 'Parade' - the latter of which is far too imitative to really stick out with any merit of its own. The journey through hard-rock enters the 80s and the drivetime-epic sounds of 'New Lands' that are easily more compatible with electronica, and it's markedly catchier than its predecessors.

We're then given a small glimpse of silly-Justice on 'Helix' with a disco-funk tune randomly interspersed with some dude's random moans and 'yeah's. It's perhaps at their most light-hearted that the French duo make their most irresistable music, but then the shift of genres could be to blame for some of this record's failings. That they should choose to end with the title track is a small miracle, then, given its less direct samples of classical genres. Of course, the killer synth hook gives it its sheen.


Perhaps they're just running out of hooks - but, whilst I don't criticise their forray into alternative genres and influences, it's their childlike vibrancy that's sadly sparse on their sophomore record. There are fine tracks, though, and I'm not too worried yet about the direction they're going in - as long as they manage to rekindle their audience with...well, electronic music again.

Rating: 6.5/10
Highlights: On'n'On, Civilization, New Lands
Avoid: Parade

Artwork Watch: Not a tombstone. Not a tombstone. Not a tombstone. *blindly looks forward to Album #3*

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